Troy residents remember homeless man who died

Tim Wozniak, of Troy, at the memorial for William Douglas Aulph, 57, aka Doug or John, who died recently, pictured Wednesday March 27, 2013. Douglas was a homeless man who slept on the bench outside of an abandoned Kmart in Troy. (Oakland Press Photo: Vaughn Gurganian)

Residents traveling down Maple Road at Livernois in Troy will see a makeshift memorial of handwritten letters, photographs, balloons, flowers and stuffed animals decorating a bench.

That bench is where William Douglas Aulph, 57, slept every night for the past 15 years until he died earlier this month from hypothermia, according to the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Troy resident Tim Wozniak, a member of the Citizens Police Academy, said he would visit Aulph on occasion and described him as “a man who lived on little but gave a lot.”

Wozniak said Aulph was always concerned about how others were doing and never about himself.

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“People would drive through the parking lot and stop and see how he was doing. One concerned person checked on him in the early morning (on March 15) with a McDonald’s breakfast and found him dead,” said Wozniak.

Aulph, who lost his hearing as a baby and suffered from mental illness, called the outside of an old, vacant Kmart building his home. And residents from around Troy and Clawson would visit him on a daily basis to bring him coffee or food from nearby fast food restaurants.

Aulph’s sister Maria said about 50 people came out last Saturday to that spot and shared memories of her brother. Maria and her husband paid for the funeral so he could be properly buried.

“One mother told me her 4-year-old would sit down on the bench next to my brother, and he would tell her stories. And there was a letter by someone saying they were sorry for never stopping to talk to him and that they learned from this experience never to pass anyone by again,” said Maria. “Another lady said the last time she had dropped off food to him, the last thing she remembers as she was driving away was when she looked in the rearview mirror, and he was smiling.”

For 12 years after Aulph became homeless, no one in his family — even his three adult children — knew where he was. Maria’s husband finally recognized Aulph standing outside while going to a nearby Arby’s, and Maria then started to visit him there on a regular basis.

“I was so happy to find my brother, but it was really hard to go to bed that night knowing I was sleeping in a warm bed and my brother was outside. I kept trying to convince him to come home with us, but he said, ‘No,’ ” said Maria. “Sometimes people would take him to shelters overnight, but he would come right back the next day. He liked being outdoors.”

Maria said before becoming homeless, Aulph, who graduated from Lahser High School, worked as a bricklayer and an auto mechanic on the side. Even while living outdoors, he would work odd jobs such as mowing a local bank’s lawn, cleaning tables at the nearby McDonald’s for food or cleaning the bathroom at Michigan Chandelier for a cup of coffee.

“Some people are afraid of homeless people. But most of them aren’t violent. Most of them do have mental illness, an alcohol addiction or both. Living outdoors allows them not to have to deal with people on a daily basis if they don’t want to,” Maria said.

Dale Berden, who works in electrical parts at Michigan Chandelier at 190 E. Maple Road, said Aulph has come into the business every morning for the past eight years to use the bathroom, clean himself and drink a cup of coffee.

“He’d make our coffee for us in the morning,” said Berden. “We heard he died from natural causes. It’s kind of a rough life living outside.”

Captain Robert Redmond of the Troy Police Department said officers would check on Aulph almost every day to make sure he was all right.

“He liked to talk. He liked his own peace of mind and his freedom,” said Redmond. “The Kmart (owners) allowed him there. … He was there when Kmart was still open and spent most of his time behind it in a box. At the end, he was living by the front doors under the awning.”

Officer Pete Dungjen was working with the State of Michigan to find Aulph a place to live when he couldn’t take care of himself.

Redmond said, “We spent a lot of hours working on that, but we didn’t get it done in time.”

Sgt. Andy Breidenich described Aulph as very kind man with a gentle soul.

“He had a good heart, and I never considered him to be a public nuisance at all,” Breidenich said.

He said several Troy police officers would stop to give him food, drinks or money.

Maria said she is very grateful to the community for keeping an eye on her brother for all these years. She said her brother’s story has opened her eyes to how many good people are in the world who are willing to take care of people who may be different than themselves.

“All I keep hearing from people is, ‘We learned so much from your brother.’ It makes me feel good because we tried so hard to get him to come indoors, but maybe there was a purpose for him to be there,” she said.